T
HE way people behave in Meet the Humans — a new BBC series that puts people’s emotions and everyday behaviour under the spotlight — has more in common with a troop of mountain gorillas in Planet Earth than you would think.
When an alpha male pulls up late for a high-school reunion in a flashy blue car, the man who has already established dominance stands taller while the other men flinch, fidget and joke, keeping a wary eye on this rival. The women’s reactions are less overt but they also pay attention.
Meet the Humans takes place in an English country manor like Downton Abbey and the volunteers who come forward in each episode think they are taking part in a TV reality show.
What they don’t know is that the writer and presenter, Dr Michael Mosley, is watching their every move from behind the scenes flanked by psychologists and neuroscientists who interpret what they are doing.
It’s as if he is in an animal hide and the people are predators and prey interacting at a waterhole.
Every episode is designed to trigger basic human emotions like fear, lust and competition.
Mosley says: “We wanted to see if people would act in predictable ways and I loved it that often they did not behave the way we predicted. They also sometimes did exactly what we would expect. In one scene we have identical twins rowing and as soon as we get a pretty girl to watch, they start to show off. Their heart rates go up, without them